Has anyone been playing Pokerogue? It’s a pokemon roguelike fan game. That’s the one that has been ruining my life. I avoided buying Balatro for this reason and yet here we are. Be warned, I’d you like Pokemon this one may get its claws in
Still wakes the deep was a disappointment to me I hate to say. It looks great and it’s well acted and made with care and talent. Setting is cool, I like how “regular” everything looks. But the story/themes are kind of hack. While I was playing it I’d assumed Pinchbeck wasn’t too involved in the production, but according to the credits he was. It’s 100% what you’d assume a game with a bunch of guys getting chased around by a bio-entity would be. I’d anticipated some attempt at weird stuff as in early the Chinese room games but this was real boilerplate for whatever reason. Kind of a bummer to say but I suppose it’s not unfair to judge based on these merits. Contrast with Indika and The Invincible from months past
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INDIKA is all sorts of the best kind of weird.
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Im in the demon world of DQV! Hopefully nearing the end, this lines up with elden ring shadow of the erdtree great, because I’m in the shadow realm, and it comes out tomorrowish!
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I’ve been playing Sand Land over the last few days and it sure is a 6/10, by which I mean too flawed to be a special kind of 7/10.
Briefly, there is a lot to like about this game. As a representation of Akira Toriyama’s work this things oozes charm, personality and silliness in much of the same way that Dragon Quest does; demons are goofy, humans have exaggerated, wide-eyed expressions, and monster designs are playful - my favourite are the crocodiles that waddle-attack like a dog waddling over for its dinner. The storytelling is good, albeit with some bad villain melodrama, and there are some genuinely laugh-out-loud moments
Combat outside of vehicles is pretty simple, with light, heavy and special attacks and it’s serviceable. However vehicle combat is where the game shines with tonnes of vehicles to unlock and an expansive level of customisation. Each one handles differently and none feel cumbersome - they feel just right.
Where it falls down there are three aspects that disappoint. The first, briefly, is the exploration banter; specifically that you will hear the same lines 20, 30+ times if you’re just blasting through the story and I’d say that’s a gross understatement. By the time I reached the post game I turned voices volume to silent. It feels like such an oversight given how tight the main script is.
Secondly, whilst the representation of a desert feels like one - the maps are huge and empty. Most towns serve as nothing more than scene dressing, and you won’t see most of them (or much else) if you follow the critical path. The flipside of this is that it takes a little bit too long to go anywhere and the verticality of the maps mean that what might look like a path is actually blocked by a cliff face.
And finally, sort of following on from that. At least half of the side stuff doesn’t really become available until after the main game; dozens of side quests and town building for two, but you’re also effectively gated from a lot of the pre-existing activities like higher level racing or battle arena because you don’t have the means to build fast / strong enough vehicles to attempt them in the main game. If they’d been more gently woven into the main game then I think the game would have been a more tasteful experience.
For what it’s worth I have enjoyed playing it, in a Saturday morning cartoon way but it’s really only for people that want to switch their brains off and go for an OK ride.
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Big ups to the forum for turning me on to Before the Green Moon. I had been sort of craving a farming game in the back of my brain, but sometimes I like the idea of something more than the object itself – especially when the object requires the commitment that many farming games do. Before the Green Moon is kind of like the easygoing idea of a farming game, but it remains that easygoing idea when you sit down to play it
I’d also just been talking to my partner about the overly-dense, overstimulating, inevitably sameish visual direction that the majority of high-budget modern games are going in (after we’d watched a few playlists of summertime game trailers, they really started to become sludgy). I was thinking about how I can probably still navigate some of the villages from games I played as a kid, but I still can’t find the dang tavern after 40 hours of Dragon’s Dogma 2. I was thinking about Metal Gear 3 losing some visual identity, despite it looking like a quality remake. I don’t think it’s nostalgia. I don’t really like nostalgia, and I bristle at it being wielded so overmuch in gaming discourse
As soon as I started milling about Green Moon – which uses a lower-poly visual style that isn’t “retro” or “nostalgic,” has influences but doesn’t seem to be an homage, or a spiritual sequel; it’s just low-poly and a less dense space to navigate because that’s what it is – my brain felt nice. I played for a day and pretty much know my way around. The days are short, the writing is good (I’d really enjoyed Wide Ocean, Big Jacket, too), it’s mysterious without frustration, it’s big on taking things at your own pace, it’s absolutely beautiful in every frame, and the soundscapes belong at your bedside
Anyway, anyone know how to catch one of them lizards walking around during the dry season, or where the campfire is on the weekend?
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Post-Dark Souls I am back on my bullshit, by which I mean playing Wrath of the Righteous once more on account of the new and final DLC launching last week. While the DLC itself takes place in the final act, I’m running through from the beginning with one of the several new character archetypes that came along with the DLC update
After around 1400 hours, I know the game almost like the back of my hand, but so many things about it continue to delight me, particularly in its character writing, but also things like the sound design, the character barks for critical hits, and the music. It feels good to come back to this one after quite some time away, and I’m a bit sad that Owlcat doesn’t seem to have any plans for future Pathfinder games
I will probably do at least one or two more runs after this one since the new DLC has special content for each romance, but first and foremost will almost certainly be my beloved spider-cat wife, Wenduag
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Just started playing Nioh on a whim. Videogames are back. I feel alive
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Playing A Link to the Past on a fifteen hour flight. One of the first games i ever remember beating (the GBA port however many years ago.) not much to say about the game other than shoutout to my uncle for giving it to me when i was five.
Looking back i got gifted really good games that these folks definitely had no clue what they were giving me - maybe we had a good GameStop guy in town? I remember relatives giving me Skies of Arcadia and Final Fantasy Tactics advance, games I had never mentioned and had no means of knowing about (I only liked Pokémon?)
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i also wound up with a copy of final fantasy tactics advance for unknown reasons. i remember being disappointed that you couldn’t walk around the little towns in a non battle setting.
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I would love to play Nioh again for the first time. What a treat.
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This makes me happy that I bought it on sale recently!
I’m currently playing through Divinity Original Sin 2 but it’s next up on my list (I may be on the same bullshit)
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I hope you love it! It’s my favorite cRPG in quite a long time!
it’s sad girl strawberry summer solstice 2024 and I have uninstalled destiny 2 for the 6th time
a very close friend whom I love dearly left town forever a week ago after staying with me for a month and I am in great pain. in my grief I played through the final shape. it’ s really too bad I have such a terrible relationship with this game because it is about as good as it’s ever been right now. I have lots of complicated feelings about destiny and its status as a fundamentally exploitative technocrat power fantasy but it sure does feel incredible to run around in and Bungie sure knows how to frame a vista. it’s not that it’s bad. everyone who plays it seems to hate it but then they keep doing it. it’s the fun kind of stress. it’s fun! it’s a little -too- fun. and then you feel kinda weird and unsatisfied and you can’t sleep. it’s like… the kratom of video games
anyway
while she was here we played Lorelei and the laser eyes every night until we finished it and… that there… that’s a video game to play with your Person
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I have been playing MGS2, and I’m currently at the Fatman fight. I despised the bomb freezing on the struts segment, and to have a boss fight of doing that is quite offputting. I’m stuck where I can’t find the bombs in the boss fight in certain areas. Fatman has sick skates though.
MGS2 is weird… the Tanker part is great and impressive, especially coming off of MGS1. But Big Shell is a bland environment so far and there hasn’t been much anything interesting story or gameplay wise. Not enjoying MGS2 to be honest, but hoping to get past Fatman and maybe it’ll pick up?
Without spoilers, is it worth sticking MGS2 through to the end?
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in a word, yes
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yes indeed
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I’m gonna toss in a(n entirely genuine, I might add) “no – on the contrary!”
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yeah, that might also be the case. i think how the ending and latter half of msg2 hits is dependent on how primed you are to receive it. i personally really liked it, but if i was in a bad mood, i can easily see myself thinking it goofy and bloated.
i have to say the gameplay or environments don’t really change much from the fat man fight, so if you’re not loving the atmosphere so far i wouldn’t expect that to radically change.
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Do you have the mine detector? I know the bomb placements are sometimes tricky in any case but if you ended up without the detector it’s worth retrieving for the fight.
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